Businessman not giving up bid to make Vodacom pay
Khaba says mobile giant stole his idea
An Ekurhuleni businessman is proceeding with his battle against cellphone giant Vodacom, who he claims acted dishonestly and is unjustly reaping the fruits of its airtime advance product.
John Khaba is heading to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to fight for the moneymaking airtime advance product, which he claims is his idea.
“There can be no doubt that the respondent’s (Vodacom’s) conduct in misrepresenting the appellant’s (Khaba’s) property and in failing to obtain the appellant’s consent before exploiting, plagiarising and re-purposing the idea was dishonest and unlawful and ultimately wrongful,” reads Khaba’s heads of argument filed at the SCA last week.
Khaba’s company, Ndabenhle Business Enterprise, is appealing South Gauteng High Court Judge Colin Lamont’s judgment dismissing his claim to the product.
At the high court, Vodacom took exception, a formal objection during trial, claiming Khaba’s lawsuit was vague and embarrassing.
In December, Lamont upheld the exception and dismissed Khaba’s application.
However, the 57-year-old is not giving up and has told the SCA that Vodacom failed to obtain his consent to use and/or repurpose his idea and to credit him for it.
“The respondent actually misappropriated the idea embodied in the solution, repurposed it for itself in the form of a product called ‘airtime advance’ and has been profiting from the idea to the exclusion of the appellant ever since,” read Khaba’s court papers.
He said Vodacom’s conduct was contrary to society’s most prized values.
According to Khaba, Lamont should not have deprived him of the right to amend his particulars of claim and upheld Vodacom’s exception.
He said the high court should have recognised that the airtime advance was his property and that Vodacom should have sought his permission before using his idea.
Khaba said he proposed his idea to Vodacom’s outgoing executive Vuyani Jarana on April 6 2010, a year before Vodacom launched its airtime advance product.
Khaba is demanding five cents of every R1 of pre-tax profit earned by Vodacom from its airtime advance since May 2011.
The product allows Vodacome customers to buy airtime on credit, and then pay an additional R1 the next time they recharge.
Vodacom is expected to file its heads of argument next month and thereafter a date of hearing of the matter will be allocated, according to Khaba’s lawyer Phumzo Mbana.